Comfort food

I’ve been not feeling so good the past couple of days, which finally emerged as the sore throat that conquered the world. It hurt to even swallow last night, so I made myself comfort food my adopted mom in Japan had sent me, and took the day off from school, and slept in, and am finally beginning to feel a little better. The Japanese food was a comfort. When I get sick now, I always want miso soup and rice. It warms me up without feeling so heavy. In any case, my adopted Japanese mom is always putting up pictures of recipes she’s made on her webpage, so I’ve decided to keep that tradition, especially since most of the stuff I made was stuff she’d sent me. 🙂

Behold the beauty of Miso soup with wakame (seaweed) and tofu.

Marvel at Japanese rice generously arranged with furikake (vegetable sprinkles)

Feast your eyes on the miracle of oden, a Japanese winter dish of daikon radish, potato, konnyaku (a gelitinous creation made from dragon root), fish cakes and boiled egg.

It’s actually red miso called yamabuki. It’s one of my favorite misos, but I have to say the other two best misos are made in Nagoya and Sapporo. I think they’re all good for sore throats, but the red miso feels especially soothing to a sore throat to me for some reason. If you want to try this type and can’t find it down there, let me know and I’ll send you some. If you make your own miso soup, make sure to get the dashi for it, though; otherwise it doesn’t taste as flavorful. If you search the phrases yambuki red miso, google should turn up a page for it, I think.

Also, this may sound odd, but if it’s not too gross to you, a handful of slivers of spam is actually good in miso. Again, that’s if you’re okay with spam. 😉